SWOT Analysis - Planning and Strategy To Grow A Creative Business (Part 1)

Click here to get my best courses before the prices increase! Get this offer: www.jennawebbart.com

In this episode, I reflect on the past year and share my strategy for the new year.

I emphasize the importance of doing a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to strategically plan for your business growth. 

I’ll walk you through your own SWOT analysis for a successful 2024. Because you can't be successful without a plan.

"When we move the needle in our compass, even by the smallest degree, it changes the course of your entire path."

I discuss the need to focus on activities that bring joy and generate revenue, while eliminating time-wasting tasks. Your most precious resources are time and energy - so let’s use these for more JOY! 

Also, I am announcing a special birthday sale on my signature classes. 

Don’t miss this opportunity to evaluate your 2023 strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to create a balanced and fulfilling business plan for 2024.  

Let’s do this!

YOU WILL LEARN:

✓To reflect on your 2023 business to plan for an incredible 2024

✓Ways to evaluate personal strengths and weaknesses to make informed decisions.

✓How to use a SWOT analysis to create a strategic business plan.

✓The importance of Identifying activities that bring joy and generate revenue

✓How to eliminate time-wasting tasks

✓To consider building skills in areas that need improvement

About The Host:  Jenna Webb is an artist, mentor, and coach who helps creative entrepreneurs grow their businesses. She has overcome chronic illness and false beliefs to pursue her passion for art and teaching. Jenna is dedicated to helping artists find joy and success in their creative endeavors.

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Transcript

0:01

Welcome to the Empowered Artist Podcast, where you'll get all the strategy to sell your art online. I'm Jenna Webb. I've helped thousands of artists realize and achieve their dream. I'm an artist, marketing coach, founder of Artpreneur Academy, chronic illness warrior, and your new art business. When I retired from corporate to live my dream life as an artist, there was no example for me to follow. But as I started to grow a six figure art business, I was able to map out a complete step by step blueprint for successfully creating and marketing online art businesses. If I can learn how to be an artist in my thirties, I can teach you how to run a business. Now, as the how to girl, I'll give you all the tips. and tricks that will actually grow your art business. So tune in each week as we simplify art marketing, make selling your work fun, and elevate your artpreneur mindset so that you can feel like the badass that you are, even on the tough days. I am on a mission to transform the mindset and income of artists everywhere. So if you're ready to live your dream life as a full time artist, let's do the damn thing. Hey empowered artists. Guess what? It's my birthday. My birthday falls in December. So it's especially a reflective time for me. With the end of the year being here. And I wanted to loop you in on exactly what I'm doing in my business to make plans for the new year. So you can do it too. So we're going to do a SWOT analysis. So you can plan strategically to grow your creative business so you can spend the next year with a full wallet and a full soul. I've been spending a lot of my time lately thinking about how this last year has gone and what's made it work really well. And exactly what I want to focus on in this next year. You know, I have chronic illness and I want to spend all of my time really focusing on what I love the most. And I want to spend no time wasted on the things that don't bring me joy. In my business. I don't want to spend time on things that don't make me money. I don't have time to waste. It's been such an incredible year when I look back. One of the biggest obstacles I've overcome this year is myself. I've had a lot of false beliefs around what I was capable of doing. I had a lot of narratives. I had to rescript around my own chronic illness and what was possible for me. I really didn't think I could do something like show up for a weekly podcast when I have daily pain. But. Through the work I'm doing with you and the feedback I'm getting from you. I know that I'm showing up to my life's purpose every day and I'm able to push through the pain on. Bad days and give myself a little gentle push when I need to. And rest when I need to. Like last week I was sick. And. You are a loyal listener and you're still showing up for me so just thank you for your loyal support and helping it be such an incredible year. We've reached over 22,000 downloads. And. I'm just overjoyed to serve you as your mentor and your coach. And I know I want to keep doing this. This is truly what I meant to be doing. So I thought I'd celebrate this really special birthday this year and what we've accomplished together by gifting you a little something. So right now only you can get four of my signature classes. At the best value of all time, they are on sale for 15% off. And this is before I make pricing increases this birthday sale is so rare and so special. It's just for you. Click the link in the show notes or visit Jenna Webb art.com/birthday. To join the movement of thousands of other art preneurs who have decided to take charge of their destiny. This offer includes 15% off the Artpreneur academy. The price will go up the next enrollment period. This discount has never happened before, and it will never happen again. You can also snag the brand new, sell art on social system at the at the early adopter rate. So this is the featured discount, which is the lowest price you'll ever see for the brand new. Sell art on social system. The price will be going up for the next enrollment period. The main difference between the art business classes. The art preneur academy is a entire step-by-step business plan. It's a 10 week course. And the cell art on social system is a mastery tool. It is a social media sales and social content planning system. It takes four hours to complete. These are completely different mastery courses. I highly recommend both programs for artists who are serious about having the right tools to grow your art business. The other two. Signature courses that I am offering right now for 15% off. Are painting courses. My signature meditative painting courses. Where you can paint with alcohol inks on yupo paper. This is for beginners and beyond. And. Alcohol inks on canvas, which is my signature method for priming. Alcohol links on canvas. These two painting courses will likely be discontinued in 2024. So get in while you can. Like I said, you have made 20 23 and incredible year this is a really special birthday. And this is my thank you to you. So click the link in the show notes to get this offer now or visit Jenna Webb art.com/birthday. As an entrepreneur, your most precious resources are your time and your energy. That's why reflecting on your year and making a plan for your next year. Is so important to be successful. Not just in terms of making money. But for being balanced and feeling fulfilled. And the best way to do this is a SWOT analysis. SWAT is an acronym for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. I have been doing my own SWOT analysis, not in one session, but multiple sessions. And that is one reason we're breaking down this episode into two parts so I can guide you through it. You can follow the categories, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, if you want to. But in essence, you're really just asking yourself what went really well this year. And what didn't go so well. So, what do I want to keep doing in my business? And what do I want to stop doing? Or eliminate. It gives you a chance to honor any change that has happened. And recognize where change needs to happen. You really can't be successful without a plan. So this is the time this is that pregnant pause in our business, where we get to decide. Where exactly do I want to be sitting next year? In my business at this time. By evaluating where we are today. We can evaluate exactly where we want to go. Because when we move the needle in our compass, even by the smallest degree, it changes the course of your entire path. So starting with strengths or what went really well this year. You can ask yourself. What did I enjoy most? And what specific outputs generated the most revenue? You want to get really specific? So what specific activity did I spend time on that put cash in my pocket. So don't be general and just say marketing or social media. Was it writing emails. Well, how many emails did you write per week? And what were the themes of those emails? Really analyze that. You'll also want to think about what didn't go so well or what things you did that you want to eliminate. And not spend your time on. Next year. So for me. I had a lot of alignment with the time I spent and the joy that was generated from creating this podcast, it took most of my time each week. It. Was 100% aligned with exactly where I want to be, the joy. I create the purpose in my life and my business. It's exactly what I want to be doing. So. Luckily. Those two things line up for me. When you're asking yourself what went well this year, you want to cover all the categories in terms of. Enjoyment. Revenue. And what you spent the most time on. So when you start looking at weaknesses or what didn't go so well throughout the year, you can look at. What did you spend a lot of time on that did not pay off. In terms of money or joy. So you definitely want to look at anything you're spending the most time on. That takes the most energy. You could ask yourself. Did I go to a lot of art shows. And make a lot of money. And did I love every second of it from the preparation to chatting people up to the drive home. Or did I spend a lot of time doing something else that I didn't love? How did I actually spend my year? If I were to break it down into little buckets. Maybe there was something you were doing in your business that you thought was going to make you a lot of money. And it didn't and you spend a lot of time doing it. So that's obviously going to be an activity that you don't want to spend a lot of time on next year. So that's probably something you want to eliminate altogether. Or is it something that you need to build a skill in? You? Maybe it's something like marketing that's really important. And just because it didn't go well, Doesn't mean you can forget it or you should forget it. Maybe it's that you need to create an opportunity for yourself by building a skill in that area. So if it didn't go well, you can ask yourself why. Maybe it wasn't right for your business. Or maybe the way you went about it was the wrong way. It depends. You also want to. Think about these activities in terms of your personal strengths and weaknesses. So what was I freaking killer at this year? What really resonated with my audience. When it comes to your creativity. What types of artwork sold the most? You want to double down on all the things that went really well. And hone in on those and take a look at all the things that didn't go great, that you felt like you were wasting time on and toss them, or if the reasons they didn't go great are something that you can change and create opportunity from and learn from. Then you can pivot. The next two parts of the SWOT analysis are opportunities and threats. And. The reason we're going to do the SWAT analysis in two parts. And in two episodes is because you can't analyze your whole year and just one session of sitting down for a few minutes. When you're done analyzing. You have to set it down, walk away. And sleep on it. And then come back. I've been doing this for a couple of weeks, actually in my business. And I've been reaching out to my customers. And asking them for feedback. And I've been evaluating my programs and offers. That's one of the reasons I might eliminate. My meditative painting course and my alcoholics on canvas course, I haven't decided yet. Um, Those are one of the two courses that you are being offered 15% off for the birthday sale. But I'm not sure yet. I'm still going through. Analyzing that. Those two courses are amazing. They are my signature painting courses. I'm not sure if I want to let them go or not yet, but my SWOT analysis is all about. What do I want to pour myself into next year? Because I have such limited time. And I have to create space for things I can say yes to. And. I don't have time to say yes to everything I want to do. You can be amazing at a few things in life, but you can't be incredible at everything. You have to pick your main things and. I know that sometimes by eliminating impairing down, I'm able to be more powerful. So I might keep them and I might not. But. To be determined, stay tuned. So next week will be part two. We'll create opportunities to grow your business and uncover threats that are standing in your way. We'll complete your SWOT analysis so you can grow your business in 2024 with a full wallet. And a full soul, because as a holistic artist, you can only be creative when you are rested. You're feeling. Confident you have a direction to follow. And I'm really excited for you to listen to this episode again and stay. Tuned to next week's SWAT analysis part two. There are three ways you can learn and grow your art business, like an empowered artist and get the most mileage from the show. The first way is to follow the show and turn on notifications. So you never miss an episode. We generally follow a weekly schedule, but sometimes there are bonus episodes and sometimes I might get sick. But for the most part, I'm giving out weekly episodes and bonuses. So make sure your notifications are turned on. Number two, subscribe to the show on YouTube. I personally think YouTube is such an outstanding way to absorb the content because you can watch. Listen and learn all at once. Number three, follow me on Instagram, Tik, TOK, and YouTube at Jenna Webb art. I dropped nuggets of wisdom of the show every single week. And you can save those as reminders of action, you want to take in your business because the key to taking a course or getting coaching or listening to a podcast. Are the actions you take. Actually doing something with it. And that's what the empowered artist is all about taking action. And I want that for you. Plus when you come and join me over on social media, you can discuss the episodes with me, ask your questions and I can specifically answer your questions here on the podcast. I would love to do that. So go ahead and connect with me on all the socials and drop your first comment to chat with me today. If this episode fell on your heart and got you or revved up for more, I would love it. If you'd share it with a friend. You are incredible and I hope you get out there and kick some ass today. I love you. See you next week.